Hilton Head woman thought horseshoe crabs were mating. Then she noticed the plastic bag
Elizabeth Skenes Millen and her friend were on a peaceful evening walk on Hilton Head Island’s beach Monday when, from a distance, they saw a lump near the surf.
Millen turned to her friend and joked that the brown lump was two horseshoe crabs getting busy, as we’re on the cusp of horseshoe crab mating season. During spring, pairs of the animals can often be found on the beach overlapping each other in a not-so-sensual mating practice.
As the friends got closer, giggling, they found something else entirely.
Three horseshoe crabs were stuck in a thick plastic mesh bag on the beach near Port Royal Plantation. Millen said the bag reminded her of the bags that onions are sold in.
“I walk the beach a lot, and I’ve seen a lot,” Millen said, “but I’ve never seen something like this. I threw my shoes and socks off and went out there and started working on it.”
In the surf, Millen started to gently untangle the horseshoe crabs. The first one came free relatively easily, she said, but things got more difficult deep down in the bag.
A stranger joined Millen in trying to free the crabs, and the two cut the bag loose with her set of keys.
“Normally they move really slowly, but when we got them out, all three bolted out,” she said. “I really feel that they were suffering. It was definitely not a bag that all three could fit in.”
The beach wasn’t particularly busy Monday night in Port Royal Plantation, one woman visiting from California took photos of the rescue.
“She said ‘You two are heroes.’ But we’re not heroes. We’re just doing what we need to do,” Millen said. “We probably are heroes to the three horseshoe crabs.”
The problem could have been avoided, she said, if people took more care not to leave trash on the beach and near waterways, because it ends up in the ocean.
A study released by nonprofit conservation organization Oceana in November compiled 1,792 reports of animals swallowing or becoming entangled in plastic trash between 2009 and 2018.
The most often hurt or killed animal, according to the reports, was the marine species most talked about on Hilton Head — the sea turtle.
Of the reported cases of plastic-related damage to an animal, 861 were sea turtles (including all six species found in the U.S.), and 931 were all other marine mammals — 34 different species.
“Just because it’s not accumulating on your beach doesn’t mean plastic is not in the places where your animals are hanging out,” Kimberly Warner, the report’s author, told The Island Packet. “It’s turning up in the animals on your shore.”
If you find an animal on Hilton Head’s beach
Millen and the stranger who joined her did the right thing in freeing the horseshoe crabs, marine biologist Amber Kuehn told The Island Packet.
The crabs aren’t protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (which makes sense, because they’re more closely related to anthropods, not mammals), and they’re not endangered, which means they can be moved or touched if absolutely necessary.
If you find an animal entangled on the beach, Kuehn recommends calling the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Stranding Hotline at (800) 922-5431.
The operator will help you determine what to do and whether the animal can be touched or handled.
In general, don’t touch sea turtles or dolphins stranded on the beach.
And no matter the species, don’t touch a dead animal on the beach, Kuehn said, because animal carcasses can carry diseases.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 4:30 AM.
